Do the Oilers need to worry about offer sheets this summer?

There’s a list of 86 restricted free agents who would be offer sheet eligible this summer, with names that include the likes of Buffalo Sabres forward JJ Peterka, Winnipeg Jets winger Gabriel Vilardi, and Toronto Maple Leafs winger Matthew Knies, to name a few who had strong offensive seasons this year.

For the Edmonton Oilers, however, there’s only one player who is eligible to be sent an offer sheet: defenceman Evan Bouchard. After a rocky regular season filled with ups and downs, his game has — for the second straight year — hit another level in the playoffs, scoring four goals and 12 points through the Oilers’ first 11 games.

There’s no doubt that fans will be holding their breath until Bouchard signs an extension with the Oilers, whenever that may be, but it’s hard to imagine there being a team who would effectively be able to send one Bouchard’s way.

First and foremost, the team sending it would need to do so ensuring the Oilers weren’t in a position to match. The team is entering the offseason with roughly $9.4-million in cap space, according to PuckPedia, and they have some unrestricted free agents to deal with in Jeff Skinner, Corey Perry, Connor Brown, Kasperi Kapanen, Trent Frederic, and John Klingberg, as well as a littany of minor leaguers, too.

Edmonton’s done work in recent months to acquire a number of college and European free agents that could make the jump to the NHL next season, as well as their own top prospect Matthew Savoie, who is likely pencilled into the Oilers’ top nine.

So, to put it simply, a team would have to offer sheet Bouchard in the $11.7-million+ range to really pinch the Oilers. There’s plenty of teams who would have the space to do so, but are they willing to give up the required compensation? That’s hard to imagine.

Daily Faceoff’s Frank Seravalli and Jason Gregor broke down the potential offer sheet landscape on Thursday’s edition of The DFO Rundown, where Seravalli said he felt any offer sheets wouldn’t come in that upper echelon this summer.

Tyler Yaremchuk: The compensation for offer sheets came out again and last year we had the drama with Broberg and Holloway… Let me just ask you guys: buy or sell on an offer sheet this offseason?

Gregor: I’m going to sell. There’s just so much extra cap space now that it’s going to be a lot harder to do. Everyone’s on guard now… whereas before you’re probably like ‘Ehhh… it’s not going to happen.’ I think more cap space, more teams will say ‘We’ll take care of our own.’

Seravalli: I’m buying all day. Owners are all over general managers. Look, ‘you used to tell me before this was not a way to acquire players. Here’s proof, here’s two guys, and we didn’t have to give up a ton to do it.’

I’m not saying it’s going to be successful, but I would bet that we see at least one, and I would venture to guess it’s going to be for players much lower down the compensation scale. You’re talking four, five, six-million dollar players, not seven to $12-million players.